Words from men and women about women and men

He loved the things about me that nobody noticed. ~ Jane Birkin

Monogamy? I can't wait. I don't practise it, because I haven't met the one I'd practise it with, but I believe in it absolutely. I'd join that club in a heartbeat. ~ Mickey Rourke

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love. ~ Neil Gaiman

Everyone suffers humiliation, we all have our hearts broken, we all become orphans. Everything is stacked in men's favour, but still I wouldn't want to be one. It's more fun to be a woman - a more varied life - and the clothes are better. But then the flip side of "varied" is a life of constant interruption, which, of course, is the enemy of writing. Despite the inequalities that exist, I think educated people can play either way. I don't think it's harder to be a woman; these days I think what's hard is to be young. I'm so relieved that youth is behind me and all the heartache and anguish is reserved for my desk. ~ Isabel Fonesca (wife of Martin Amis)

I'd like to go for a man who is a grown-up. But there are not many of them. That's why I'm on my own. ~ Pattie Boyd